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Pope Francis Addresses U.N. General Assembly; House Speaker John Boehner to Resign. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 25, 2015 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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[09:30:42] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're covering a special event here in New York at the United Nations. Pope Francis getting ready to address the U.N. General Assembly. A major speech on the part of the pontiff. He will go through several critically important issues, including poverty around the world, climate change, war. Christiane Amanpour is with us as well.

Christiane, lots of anticipation building right now.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: Exactly. And as you said, we're look at that assembly center where he's going to be speaking. He's also going to be going down to Ground Zero, which is a very important pilgrimage for him to make. There will be an interfaith prayer service there. That will be after this speech.

And then he's going to go all the way up to Spanish Harlem and he's going to visit children up there. That is a message that he cares about, you know, those who are even undocumented but the Hispanics, the Latinos and remember that immigration is a big cause of his, immigration reform, but also for the Catholic Church in this country. The Hispanic, Latino parishioners are the fastest growing here.

And then Central Park is being closed off and he's going to take his motorcade all the way down the most beautiful urban park in the world and that park will be full of, I've heard, tens of thousands of people who have special lottery ticket, residents of the region around Central Park who will be able to go in and watch the papal motorcade go through the park.

BLITZER: Going through Central.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

BLITZER: But wait, there's more. Delia, Jim, he then goes to Madison Square Garden where there will be almost 20,000 people inside for another extraordinary event. The question - 78 years old -

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: How does he do it?

BLITZER: This is a long, long day for anyone, let alone someone who's 78-years-old and does suffer from some ailments.

GALLAGHER: You know, Wolf, that, I think we have to say, is just an interior force that he has that helps him to keep going. He suffers a bad back. He suffers with his lung. Certainly suffers physically. But I think inside of him he just has that fire and he has said before that he feels that he doesn't have a lot of time and this is the moment and it needs to be done and he's pulling it out. And I think that's what we're seeing here.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You know essentially (ph) we talk about what a global stage it is and you have a - you have a congregation of world leaders unlike one we've ever seen before here at the U.N., but all these places he's visiting, and I'll confess to you that I'm a New Yorker myself, these are very New York locations to go from the 9/11 Memorial, of course, near and emotional for New Yorkers, to Madison Square Garden, to Harlem, to Central Park. Those are iconic locations. Iconic locations to connect with New Yorkers. And then when he goes to Philadelphia tomorrow, to be on those steps that Rocky ran up in the movie, you know, each place selected perfectly for the location, I think.

AMANPOUR: Is it about Rocky or the Constitution?

SCIUTTO: Equal footing. Equal footing.

BLITZER: We have a special guest, Marco Politi, who's a Vatican watcher and author - author of the book "Pope Francis Among the Wolves: The Inside Story of a Revolution."

Marco, you've studied this pope. You know this pope. Walk us through a little bit right now, how he deals with one event after another at this particular age in his life that - and such important issues, obviously, as well.

MARCO POLITI, VATICAN EXPERT: Well, you know, practically this pope has been a great surprise because Cardinal Bergoglio didn't travel very much around the world. He almost spoke no language. And now we see a pope who can speak with very great confidence about geopolitical problems. He tacked some very hot issues of this moment - of this historical moment. And he's also trying hard to speak English to the assembly or to the congressmen.

But people always forget that when the pope speaks about exclusion, about poverty, it is a man who has known really from the inside these problems because Buenos Aires is a great (INAUDIBLE) town where there are all social conditions. There are the very rich, the very poor. There is a middle class. There are wealthy people. But there are a lot of shanty towns. There are a lot of slums. And this pope has been in the slums, has walked through the slums, you know, every week.

AMANPOUR: Marco - Marco, as we see him head to the - to the - to the higher echelons of the political and the global stage, you have followed him for a long time and you've read the definitive books. We're all talking - and there he was moments ago before when he was addressing the U.N. staff inside the U.N.

[09:35:09] We're all talking about what he's exhorting the world to do. What he can do. But tell us. This is not easy. Tell us about that. He has a lot of opposition inside the Vatican amongst the clergy and the bishops. Do you think this trip and how he's been perceived in the most public and most powerful platform in the world might change the way he tries to push forward his reforms?

POLITI: Of course this trip adds the consensus he already has among the believers and also among the non-believers. We are seeing here in the United States, like in other countries, how many people even of different denominations and even of different religions are following and listening to his words. But certainly, in his effort to reshape the church, the catholic church, to make the Catholic Church a more (INAUDIBLE) church, a more (INAUDIBLE) church where the pope and the bishops lead together the church, there is still a lot of resistance and there is a lot of resistance -

BLITZER: All right, Marco, I want - Marco Politi, please stand by for a moment because, Marco, we have major breaking news we want to report right now to our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

CNN is now just learned from Representative John Mica, he's a United States congressman, that the speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, will be resigning his position as speaker of the House. He'll be resigning his seat in the United States Congress at the end of October. This is a huge, huge development. John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, second in line after the vice president of the United States to succession as president, Christiane Amanpour, second in line. He has now made a major decision, in the face of severe criticism from conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives. He has now made this decision to resign. We don't have an official statement from the speaker yet, but we do have this statement from John Mica, one of the Republican leaders in the House.

AMANPOUR: Is this related to - to the papal visit? It was John Boehner who made a huge invitation to this pope and many others and the pope -

BLITZER: No, I'm sure it's nothing to do with the visit by the pope to Washington.

AMANPOUR: No, the issues -

BLITZER: The - I'm sure it's nothing to do with that. It's mostly that there's been a lot of criticism of John Boehner for refusing to go along, for example, on this issue of Planned Parenthood, whether or not the government should be shut down. There shouldn't be funding at the end of September when the fiscal year ends. If the U.S. continues to provide $500 million to Planned Parenthood. And there have been several, let's call them, renegades in the House and in the Senate, Ted Cruz among them in the U.S. Senate, that have said, this is an issue that is so important there should - they should make sure that there's no funding for Planned Parenthood because of those controversial videos that all of us saw in recent weeks and months.

This is an issue in which he seemed apparently to be on the fence. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, the majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell was saying, you know, what, this is an important issue. You've got to stop the funding of Planned Parenthood, but you can't shut down the entire funding for the U.S. government as a result of this. And this has caused a huge issue.

You know, I want to go to our - our congressional producer, Deirdre Walsh, whose getting more information.

Deirdre, what are you learning?

I don't think she's ready yet, but we're going to get to her in a moment.

AMANPOUR: But it is interesting that it comes and he waited right after, you know, his big event.

BLITZER: That is a good point you make because he wanted to be there sitting behind with the vice president, Joe Biden, two Catholics in the U.S. government leadership. He wanted to be there yesterday. He wanted to be there, introduce and welcome Pope Francis to this joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. But his decision to go ahead and step down now has nothing to do with the visit by the pope. But it has a lot to do with funding, for example, of Planned Parenthood and other issues.

Deirdre Walsh is on the phone with us. Tell us what you're hearing, Deirdre.

DEIRDRE WALSH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL PRODUCER (via telephone): Wolf, the speaker just announced, in a closed door meeting with all House Republicans, that he plans to resign as speaker in October. A couple of members who came out of the meeting told us that the speaker told them he didn't want to become the issue anymore.

As you well know (INAUDIBLE) divisions inside the Republican conference and the speaker has been dealing with a band of conservatives that have been sort of hanging a threat over his head to oust him as speaker. And he didn't want to set continued infighting to be the story.

One of his allies came out and was sort of annoyed at this group and he called them self-serving idiots and he said he was proud of Boehner's leadership. This is Congressman David Jolly from Florida, who was one of the more moderate members of Congress. He said that the speaker got a round of applause in recognition for all the work he had done for House Republicans, but he did confirm that he plans to step down. This certainly set off a huge fight for the next person who will become speaker of the House.

[09:40:17] BLITZER: All right, Deirdre, stand by.

Dana Bash is with us as well joining us on the phone.

This is quite a shock, quite a surprise Dana. Even though the speaker, as you well know, has been under a lot of pressure, lot of criticism from some on the right in the U.S. House of Representatives, I don't think anyone anticipated that he would announce his resignation today.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Not at all. Although, I have to say, that now looking back at the moment that we all witnessed yesterday, where the speaker got what he had been hoping for, looking for as a lifelong catholic. He had spent 20 years trying to get a pope to come to speak before the United States Congress, an historic event. It never happened before.

Somebody who went to catholic school all his life. His parents sent him and his 12 brothers and sisters to catholic school. That that was kind of the pinnacle moment of his career, bringing together his career and his faith and his entire, you know, sort of personal history. That combined with what Deirdre was just reporting, which was that it has not been an easy road for John Boehner, especially in recent years. And, frankly, it just doesn't seem like he's been having fun anymore. It's a hard job to be speaker.

It historically has been a hard job to be speaker. It's even harder these days when you are a Republican, when you are leading a very large caucus, which is now by its nature sort of anti-establishment. You don't have a lot of sway. There's no - there are - there's not a lot of horse trading that you have anymore. There are no so called earmarks or, you know, sort of pork belly spending where, you know, you used to be able to, as a leader, you know, give - give a trade. I'll give you this, if you give me that. It doesn't happen anymore, which makes a lot of Republicans out there very, you know, happy because they were upset that that was the way Washington worked. But if you're a leader, it just makes it very, very hard to do. And I think - I could - you could tell in watching him publicly, privately, that it's gotten more and more frustrating for him. And, you know, what a way to go out than after a high like you're seeing on television right now to sit down in your office with you're the speaker of the House with the pope.

BLITZER: And, Dana, do you think that the - this decision by this speaker has been in his mind now for days or was he inspired perhaps by some of the powerful words of Pope Francis yesterday before a joint session of Congress calling for cooperation, political reconciliation, if you will, end of that partisanship that he just sort of slept on what he heard from the pope and decided to make this announcement today or has this been going on for some time?

BASH: You know, we're going to hear from the speaker himself soon to get an answer to that question. Knowing him and covering him for as long as I have, I can't imagine that this was an impulse decision. I would imagine that this is something he had been - has been thinking about for a while.

I have to tell you, it is not surprising to me and probably to Deirdre and all of us who cover him that he decided that he no longer wants to be speaker and no longer wants to be in the House. It is a bit surprising to me that he's deciding not just to retire but to resign. To actually just - just leave. That - that actually takes me by surprise.

So, you know, we'll see what he says about that. But to answer your question, I can't imagine this is something he just woke up this morning and said, I'm going to do. It's something he has been thinking about and probably, you know, sort of quietly planning for a little bit. BLITZER: Yes, I'm sure you're right.

Manu Raju, our congressional correspondent, is also joining us.

Manu, you're getting more information. What else are you learning?

MANU RAJU, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, this is a pretty big surprise and no one really expected it today. Of course they've been dealing with how to fund the government and that's the big question going forward. And what we were expecting this morning was for the Republicans to lay out their plan, to lay out funding for the next - sort of the next three months. Not for the speaker to come out and announce his resignation from the job. That really caught a lot of people by surprise.

But, you know, his speakership has certainly been under threat. He's over 25 Republicans who voted against him in January. And he really needed to maintain, you know, that level of support and not let that level of opposition go up higher than 29 votes because if, of course, if he lost 29 or more votes, he would have to rely on Democrats to keep his job. And that's something that I don't think the speaker really wanted to do that could really undermine him politically.

[09:45:03] And having the pope there yesterday, you know, as you guys said, I mean it was such a - a huge emotional, inspirational moment for him. It was obviously something that he could go on and believe he could leave on top of and this was -- almost like the pinnacle of his career. And in some ways it just kind of made sense to him. And when he addressed the Republican conference today he cited that. He cited exactly that, that this was -- how important of a moment it was for Pope Francis to come in after spending so much time trying to get a pope to address Congress and how much it meant to him personally.

And I think he just felt like he wanted to lead on top rather than risk a possibly leadership challenge to his post, something that could be very ugly and also deal with all the messy, messy battles that Congress has to worry about in the next couple of months. But people were certainty caught by surprise that it happened so abruptly today and in this meeting which was really just supposed to be talking about government funding over the next three months.

BLITZER: And it is fair to say the entire issue of funding for Planned Parenthood in the United States has clearly brought this issue to the fore right now. And one of the key reasons why the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has just told colleagues he is stepping down as speaker, resigning from the United States Congress at the end of October. Is that your analysis, Manu, as well?

RAJU: Yes. It is one of the big reasons. It wasn't just the Planned Parenthood fight. Remember we have to deal with -- Congress also has to figure how to raise the national debt ceiling some time in October. And even after dealing with this funding fight, it would only (INAUDIBLE) the matter for another three months. There is a very likelihood and necessity for Congress to figure out a long-term spending deal some time in December. And that means that there will have to be deals that will be cut. That means that folks who are already upset with him would be even more upset with him because of deals that would need to be cut for long-term funding and to raise the national debt ceiling.

And those are things that I think Boehner was just getting tired of dealing with. I mean, he is -- The speaker has spent a lot of time traveling the country raising a lot of money for Republican candidates. And I think. in some ways, that people (INAUDIBLE) are frustrated that that level of work has not gone really appreciated by a number --

BLITZER: All right. I've got to hold on for a moment. Manu, hold on for a moment. I just want to alert our viewers. Microphones on the left part of your screen from the U.S. Capitol Hill, that is where we expect John Boehner to be going fairly soon, to make it official, to announce he's resigning as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Presumably he'll answer reporter's questions, opening up a whole new door, Christiane, to succession, who is going to be the new Speaker of the House.

AMANPOUR: Right.

BLITZER: And then we're all - A dramatic moment right now --

AMANPOUR: Hopefully he'll wait until the Pope has made his speech that the whole world is eagerly anticipating. And the Pope is at the General Assembly the president of the GA is introducing him and getting ready.

But remember, even if Planned Parenthood is part of it, it is an issue very, very controversial to the Vatican as well. So these are issues that the church and the politicians are dealing with at the same time.

BLITZER: And it is an amazing coincide of events, if you will. And all of us remember how moved the speaker was yesterday sitting behind Pope Francis when he was delivering his very powerful remarks before a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. You could see him wiping tears away from his eye. He is a devout Catholic after all.

Michelle Kosinski is our White House correspondent watching it. I wonder, Michelle, has there been any reaction from the White House yet to this dramatic, stunning news that John Boehner is resigning?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No. You know what, we get the sense that this is just as surprising to them -- in talking to administration officials just yesterday, and you know, the topic of conversation was watching Boehner in this address by the Pope. All of that emotion that he had orchestrated this. That he had invited the Pope. Some of the administration often even say that they have a soft spot for John Boehner and they appreciate his showing of emotion and the listening to some of these topics that are, you know, in a sense you could say harsh criticism of some things that the Republicans have stood for.

However, you know, immigration was one of those topics and by the same token, as many times as the Pope brought this up, you hear from the administration criticizing Boehner for not allowing that bipartisan legislation on immigration to go forward. And you look at this relationship over the past year. The criticism from Boehner of the Obama administration on virtually every foreign policy issue. On ISIS, on Russia in Ukraine, on the Iran nuclear deal. I mean, some of the toughest criticism at times has come from John Boehner.

[09:50:05] But the Obama administration still holds some respect there and still saw potentially Boehner as part of the solution in averting a government shutdown. There really has been some optimism on that level over the past couple of days, talk at the Republican leadership. Of course, Boehner specifically could sort of smooth this out and come to an agreement. On topics like immigration, not so optimistic there. And the criticism would continue.

But this is a shock to the administration, too. We know that they're working on a statement or some sort of reaction to this. But so far nothing yet, Wolf.

BLITZER: Two major, major stories we're following here right now. Christiane Amanpour is with me. On the left you see the General Assembly President introducing Pope Francis to deliver a major speech for the U.N. General Assembly. He'll be speaking in Spanish with English translation. He's going to be speaking about all the major issues affecting the world right now, climate change, peace, poverty. He's going to go through step by step by step. This is a critically important speech that Pope Francis will deliver.

On the right of your screen, you see microphones up on Capitol Hill where we've just learned the stunning news that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, has decided to resign, not only as Speaker of the House, but also his seat in U.S. Congress at the end of October.

It opens up a whole new door, Christiane, who's going to succeed John Boehner? Who will be the new Speaker of the House? What will happen to this funding bill that has to be approved before the end of September in order to keep the U.S. government operating, because the U.S. government will run out of money at the end of September unless they pass some sort of temporary spending bill at a minimum and we know the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, wants to do that but there are other Republicans who say they will do it only if the U.S. stops funding Planned Parenthood all together. The U.S. government provides Planned Parenthood with about $500 million a year.

AMANPOUR: Very, very tricky issue, and as you say, dramatic that these two stories are happening coincidentally as we watch the U.N. Secretary General wait to introduce the Pope.

Let us quickly go to Robert George, our guest who is in Philadelphia right now. He knows Speaker Boehner very, very well. He was Appointed by speaker Boehner to the U.S. Commission on Interreligious Freedom.

BLITZER: Hold up. One second, Christiane. I just want to interrupt for a moment because Dana Bash is just getting more details on the decision by John Boehner to step down, what he told his colleagues in this closed-door meeting. Dana, what are you learning? BASH: This is really fascinating. I've just talked to a Republican

lawmaker in the room who was incredibly stunned. First of all, he said that Boehner didn't make this announcement until after he laid out his agenda. So everybody in the room thought it was a regular Republican meeting where they were talking about what they needed to do on various issues, first and foremost, Planned Parenthood.

But then he made this announcement. What he explained was that he initially only planned to be Speaker of the House for two terms, but decided to stay on longer after Eric Cantor, who was his deputy, he was the House Majority Leader, after he was defeated at a primary. He decided to stay on after that. But he decided that this was a time for him to go. And after he made the announcement, I'm told that he read the prayer of St. Francis to the entire conference.

And as part of this surprising announcement to them, he did say that the moments that he had with the Pope yesterday, the fact that he really, you know, as we've been talking about, he was able to get the Pope to speak before the United States Congress, that that was a crystallizing moment, although he didn't say he hadn't decided before yesterday.

One other bit of color I'm told by a Republican is that his deputy, Kevin McCarthy, told this source I was speaking to that he had only found out minutes before John Boehner announced. So, this was a surprise to even his top deputy. It was a very close hold, which isn't surprising given the fact that information tends to travel quite quickly in and around the Capitol. But even, I'm told, Kevin McCarthy didn't know about this. And again, Kevin McCarthy is his No. 2, he was the House Majority Leader until moments before Boehner announced it to the entire Republican caucus.

AMANPOUR: So Dana, there is a little bit of a pope effect, as our Delia Gallagher has been noticing as well, and as we thought because he was so moved by yesterday. And you say that he did recite the prayer of St. Francis. It is really interesting that this dramatic event in U.S. politics is happening at the same time as the Pope delivered such a gentle but firm exhortation to people in Congress to stand up and be counted and to use their platform and their leadership.

BLITZER: We're waiting, by the way, I just want to remind our viewers. On the left, you see Dan Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations General Assembly introducing Pope. We'll hear Pope Francis remarks - We will make sure we hear Pope Francis' remarks as he speaks.

On the right we see the microphones, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, will go to those microphones at some point and announce his decision to retire from the speakership and from the U.S. House of Representatives.

Delia, you wanted to make a point?

GALLAGHER: Well, I just think it's a bit of a shame because a lot of what the Pope was talking about to the U.S. Congress was about the capacity to work together and to stick in in dialogue and find common ground. That being said, I have seen many times the effect that Pope Francis' words and, indeed, a visit and a personal meeting can have. Not that the speaker's decision was made solely on the basis of that, but that it can really make you reflect and perhaps it tells us something even more about the Speaker.

BLITZER: Jim Sciutto, you watch this, it's amazing, two huge stories like this at the same time. The Pope getting ready to address the United Nations General Assembly, the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, getting ready to announce he's resigning.

SCIUTTO: No question. Briefly on Boehner, he was working on a plan to avoid a government shutdown, of course, with some difficulty. It would be amazing if that message from the Pope to end polarization in Congress so quickly was followed by another supreme example of polarization, if it gets to that at that point. One brief note about the Pope, I'm told that the secretary-general had a private meeting with the Pope before and thanked him for his work on climate change.

BLITZER: All right. Here's Pope Francis.

POPE FRANCIS (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

Once again, following a tradition by which I feel honored, the secretary-general of the United Nations has invited the pope to address this distinguished assembly of nations. In my own name and that of the entire Catholic community, I wish to express to you, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, my heartfelt gratitude. And I'd like to thank you for your kind words.

I greet also the heads of state and heads of government present, as well as the ambassadors, diplomats and political and technical officials accompanying them, the personnel of the United Nations engaged in this the 70th session of the General Assembly, the personnel of the various programs and agencies of the United Nations family, and all those who, in one way or another, take part in this meeting. And through you I also greet the citizens of all the nations represented in this hall. I thank you, each and all of you, for your efforts in this service of mankind.

This is the fifth time that a pope has visited the United Nations. I follow in the footsteps of my predecessors, Paul Pope VI in 1965, Pope John Paul II in 1979 and 1995, and my most recent predecessor, now-Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2008. All of them expressed their great esteem for the organization, which they considered the appropriate juridical and political response to this present moment of history, marked by our technical ability to overcome distances and frontiers and, apparently, to overcome all natural limits to the exercise of power.

An essential response, in as much technological power in the hands of nationalistic or falsely universalist ideologies is capable of perpetrating tremendous atrocities.